I just came back from a lesson with my teacher, Kenneth Grant. I think it was the shortest lesson I’ve had all year! We went through the excerpts for the audition much faster than I was anticipating…I hope that is a good thing that he didn’t have much to say. I’m glad I’m home earlier […]
Obviously it has been awhile since I’ve written. Not that nothing has happened, actually, pretty much everything has happened. I’ve basically been working on Marine band music since I last wrote. Most of December was pretty much uneventful, except for the fact that my husband was extremely sick for most of the month. That was […]
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a Vandoren reed person. And for the last few years, specifically the V-12 variety. But I have always been open to other things. I’ve been known to play on Gonzalez reeds from time to time…they are pretty good, but I don’t think that I would ever […]
Maybe this will be the last time I will ever take an audition on Friday the 13th. I am writing this from my hotel room in Charleston, West Virginia after a horrible day. The audition today is making me question whether or not this is all worth it, which is the first time I have […]
Yesterday, I taught a lesson to this really cute little 10 year old girl. She is very enthusiastic about playing clarinet, but often gets distracted because she is enthusiastic about everything! So most of the time I spend trying to get her re-focused on clarinet. But overall she is a good student. We usually play […]
Is is just me or is the Daphnis & Chloe excerpt the hardest excerpt ever? It seems like every time I have to prepare it I think to myself…”did I really play this at tempo before??”, because I have, but everytime I have to go back to it I feel like I’m starting over. My […]
So I haven’t been very good about writing in this blog…I meant to write almost every day but obviously that hasn’t really happened. I’ve just been so busy lately….I am now full time at my job, so that means I’m at work from 8-4:30 every day, and I’m taking a tax prep course twice a […]
Last night I auditioned for the Youngstown Symphony in Ohio. It was an interesting experience, mostly because I found out what happens when an orchestra does not plan its audition days very well. Yesterday they not only auditioned for 2nd clarinet, but they auditioned for violin, viola, bassoon and oboe/english horn. I’m sorry, but if […]
Finally! Success!! Well sort of, I got runner up at the Erie Phil audition on Thursday. It was awesome, I don’t think I’ve EVER played so well at an audition before!! And it was the first orchestral audition that I’ve made it past the prelims. It was exactly what I needed, especially after the disappointments […]
So I submitted my Army Band tape…and guess what? After all that stress about getting it recorded, it was rejected. Tres lame. Ben called me at work on Friday which is when we got the letter in the mail. I felt really shitty for the rest of the afternoon, oh well. But I had to […]
Sandy Herrera, Clarinet